Flu

Most Influenza Strains Do Not Match Current Vaccine

Posted by okami from medscape

As the U.S. flu season soars, the CDC says this year's flu vaccine doesn't match two of the three main types of flu bugs now in circulation.

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Touch a light switch, catch a cold, study finds

Posted by Billbar from Yahoo News!

Someone with a cold may just have left a little drop of virus on the light switch for you to pick up and infect yourself with, researchers found in a real-life look at how colds get passed around. Adults with runny noses leave the virus on about 35 percent of objects they touch, such as telephones, door handles and television controls, the researchers at the University of Virginia reported on Friday.

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Molecule blocks flu infection

Posted by Billbar from Reuters

The discovery of the peptide by University of Wisconsin scientists, which published their findings in the Journal of Virology, may lead to an entirely new antiviral drug that could thwart H5N1 and other virulent flu strains that pose a threat of a global epidemic. In tests on mice and in laboratory cultures, the molecule provided total protection against infection by influenza viruses, including H5N1. It also halted the spread of viruses in animals that were in the early stages of infection. The molecule, known as an "entry blocker," is a fragment of a larger human protein that helps things pass through membranes such as those that encapsulate cells.

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Tamiflu prevents pneumonia in kids

Posted by Billbar from Reuters

Children with flu who are given Tamiflu, Roche AG's influenza pill, are 53 percent less likely to develop pneumonia than untreated children, the company reported on Friday. And a second study showed that giving Tamiflu to very sick adults with influenza reduced their risk of death by 71 percent.

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CDC: Flu virus resistant to two common drugs

Posted by Jeff from MSNBC

Overuse of antibiotics hurts all of us.

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Next Killer Flu

Posted by Jeff from National Geographic

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